What’s Really Wrong With This Advertising Strategy?

“Did your wife SCARE you last night?”

“Do your teeth pass the tissue-white test?”

“Are you beach body ready?”

“Are you rich enough …?”

“Are you cool enough …?”

“Are you MAN enough …?”

You get the drift, right?

There is a brilliant saying.

First advertising sells you unhappiness, and once you’ve bought that, it sells you the solution to your unhappiness.

The ego sell pushes product, but it devalues life and obviously takes a toll. Such manipulative emotional triggers embodied in advertising strategy push us to a vulnerable start to feel ashamed about our normal being!

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A group of scientists once studied nearly 1 million people in 27 countries for 30 years. 

Over that time, happiness rose twice as much in the countries where advertising spending rose the least compared to those countries where it rose the most.

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Well, I am not saying that Advertising is evil.

But using emotionally manipulative triggers to sell ‘discontent’ is.

Do we have to see a grieving old mother stuck in her house to think about planning a holiday?

Do we have to see a homemaker prove a point about how much work she does at home to buy a cooling appliance?

Or, do we have to have a certain motorbike to be worthy of taking pretty girls to date?

After all, we can make a crazy promise that is seemingly impossible to fulfill, advertise it repeatedly, and get enough fools to pay for it!

That is exactly the hypothesis that two English royals tested once and proved it right.

In 1749, one of the men released an advertisement for a show claiming a man would get into a wine bottle live on the stage!!

The show was sold out in just a matter of days!!

And on the day of the show, when the performer didn’t show up, a massive riot happened inside the theater after hundreds of people waited for hours.

Bottom line: Advertising strategy should be fact-based and full of integrity. Emotional manipulation will eventually catch up with the customers, and damage the brand irreparably.